With getting ready for the LSATs, I haven’t been able to turn out as many posts as I would like. I can’t simply sit down, turn on the television and find some to ignite my “writer’s passion”, but something has focused me for another blog entry.

What about this claim that he isn’t a “villain” and that the Weather Underground wasn’t a “terrorist group”? Blogger Nancy Goldfarb was commenting about this on two of my posts during the election, discussing how these “freedom fighters” killed more people than the the Ku Klux Klan in the last fifty years. According to Goldfarb, Ayers wanted to become the world’s most notorious mass murderer, ahead of both Hitler and Stalin, something echoed by Larry Grathwohl during his interview for the 1982 documentary, ‘No Place to Hide’…

Clearly Ayers is a “villain”. Wanting to kill millions of Americans does strike me as “villainous”, if not psychotic, but this isn’t surprising coming from a man who said that children should “bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that’s where it’s really at” (at this point, wouldn’t wearing a tin-foil hat help his public image?). Let’s not forget that his group tried to bring about this revolution through a campaign of terror, multiple bombings, including one which killed three Underground members. Yes Bill, by definition (a person who terrorizes or frightens others), your former group was a terrorist organization. Even with this, the MSM was willing to give him a pass on Ayer’s assertion that he and his band of bombers weren’t terrorists, but misunderstood protesters “on the right side” of the Vietnam War issue.

We turn on the television this week and we get the story of the Mumbai attacks. We have people discussing how this is the fault of coalition efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan (keep leaning to the left CNN), forgotting that India has been the target of a variety of terrorist attacks for years. You can’t rationalize these things, there is no simple explanation for these incidents, and that the victims are not the villains in these stories. No matter what these terrorists say, it doesn’t justify their actions. While we haven’t heard from those responsible for these attacks as of yet, it doesn’t matter what their reasons are, nothing can be said that will make right the murder of civilians in an attempt to forward their cause.

Same goes with those trying to sell books. No matter what they look like, they are still monsters, people who are twisted in such a way that they should be removed from society, not celebrated on television. As these attacks in India continue, let’s remember that we still have those in our countries who not only condone terrorist actions, but participate in them as well. Every time you interview one of them, let their bullshit go unquestioned, you give support to those who continue to murder innocents for an unjustifiable cause.

It doesn’t matter when it happen, those like Bill Ayers are still terrorists, and even if they have evaded the law, it doesn’t make it right to allow them to profit from their evil deeds… Disturbing…

UPDATE:Hot Air has the latest on the Mumbai attacks, and the stand-off at Chabad House ended in bloodshed. While people all over the world are mourning, President-Elect Obama is discussing diplomacy. Didn’t I just say giving these people a platform, like diplomatic talks, just emboldens them? Urgh…

UPDATE:Hot Air has a new story about Bill Ayers up. In a recent op-ed article for the New York Times, Ayers tries once again to justify his terrorism by calling it “extreme vandalism”. Talk about delusional… What are those voices telling you now Bill? Maybe you should keep your tin-foil hat on and stay under that rock.

I have been busy the few weeks, but I will try to keep this blog updated on everything new and political, even those social and economic events which make headlines…

As an economics major, I shouldn’t have let this issue go unanswered as I have. Both the conservatives and the far-left have jumped on this issue, trying to convince us in the middle of what we should believe, and I for one am sick of it. I think it was downright stupid of Mitt Romney to say that America should “let Detroit go bankrupt”, but there is method to this madness. The auto industry has become a “money pit” in recent years, and with all the problems it now has, many think the only way to fix it is to let it collapse and then rebuild it. The problem with this is that it will cripple the economy, an economy which is very dependent on this industry for jobs. So does that mean we bailout them out to fix the problem they are in? Not at all…

The problem is that the Democrats believe that bailouts are the answer to everything. They created many of the problems the American economy now faces, so why not throw money at the problem to make it go away? The “John Edwards” approach won’t work here, so let’s not try it. In my opinion, the auto industry is suffering for three reasons, none of which can be solved by simply giving it money…

Instead of “hugging a tree”, maybe these people should actually worry about the average American and the average American business. While we saw high gas prices slow the economy to a crawl, no one was more hurt then the auto industry. The high prices of the last two years has hurt sales, their ability to make money for those who forgot, and helped put them in the situation they are in now. We have seen a small turn around in car sales in the last few weeks because of the drop is costs at the pump. Mark Levin talked about this on his show last week that the sale of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) has gone up with the fall in gas prices, something which many in the media have refused to make mention of. With lower prices, people are willing to forgo foreign hybrid shopping and look at domestic cars, allowing the auto industry to “make a living”. These are the conditions that they should have had for the last few years, but because we didn’t, automakers suffered. With this said, how would simply giving them money help this?

A handout for the “Big Three” wouldn’t help lower gas prices, nor would it cover the costs they have incurred for the development of “green” technology. One thing which could help them is by helping maintain these low prices, but how can we do this? Pardon the cliche but “DRILL BABY DRILL!” I don’t need the National Review Online telling me that drilling will help lower oil prices. While those on the left will argue that drilling now won’t solve the problem of shortages, stating that the supply remains constant while demand increases (driving up prices… simple economics), they refuse to take into account market perception. If supply isn’t seen as constant, that even if it does take ten years for additional oil reserves to be found and harvested, the fact is that the anticipation of this, even if it is a while down the road, will have an impact now on prices. Why worry and charge more if you know that oil supply will go up in the future?

As I have said before perception is very important in economics, something so many have refused to acknowledge, let alone understand…

Heavy unionization – It is no surprise that Barney Frank let it slip that a bailout of the “Big Three” is actually a bailout of the auto unions. More than anything, this bailout would be a “back scratch” in return for union support during the election. I could discuss how this is “more of the same” and that Democrats are going back on their promise of “change”, but I will save that for a later post. What I will say now is that Barack Obama’s “bottom up” economic plan has already failed, that, on that note, heavy unionization has become a problem in the US as American companies are being forced to compete openly with non-unionized foreign firms.

Yes, unions do provide protection for workers, but that role has been overshadowed by blatant corruption at higher levels. Instead of simply existing to guarantee that their members won’t be mistreated, the larger labour unions has become a problem to struggling businesses, a “wrench thrown into the gears” of industry as it were. CNSNews released a story this week that highlighted this. As Pete Winn reported, union workers for the “Big Three” charge $73 an hour, compared to domestic workers at Japanese plants in America which cost only $43. On top of that, as Larry Elder has discussed this week, domestically owned plants employ more workers for few jobs then foreign manufacturers do. This means that every jobs has a specific worker, and that no worker is allowed to do a job that he or she isn’t specified for. This means additional “experts” are hired. Taking into account that domestically manufactured cars need to be priced at the same level, if not lower, then foreign cars, it is downright disturbing. How can General Motors, Chrysler and Ford make any money when there costs are so high? The answer is they can’t…

A competitive market means prices must also be competitive. If you charge more for the “same” product, you won’t be able to sell it. Because of this, with their lower costs, companies like Toyota are expanding, while domestic automakers are sinking, cutting back to cut costs. I can and will argue that domestic cars are just as good, if not better than most foreign cars, and that American consumers should think about supporting domestic manufacturers when buying a new vehicle, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Why don’t we see the MSM reporting this? Instead of providing something intelligent to the discussion, CNN’s John Roberts said recently that the American auto industry’s dependence on the production of pick-ups was the reason for their recent troubles, proof of his utter ignorance on this issue. I guess he hasn’t heard that the Japanese are also competing in the pick-up market because they see the money that can be made there. Never heard of a Toyota Tundra, Roberts? I guess we wouldn’t see him reporting about the high costs of labour thanks to the auto worker unions, but that is to be expected…

In any event, instead of blaming automakers for their sales numbers, why not put the negative attention where it ought to be, on these “labour monopolies”? In order to fix this, these “villains” need to be exposed, dragged into the “sunlight” for all to see. Only then can wages be brought down, as well as costs, allowing the “Big Three” to be competitive once more. All a bailout will do is put money in the hands of those who are part of the problem… Something many have overlooked…

UPDATE: Even The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle is discussing this. I do agree with her assessment on this issue, contrary to what Felix Salmon and others are arguing. Just because GM workers don’t go home with $73 an hour, doesn’t mean they aren’t costing the company that. While they are supposed to be making that kind of money, what happens is that much of the money they make is deducted through a variety of administration and unions costs. Just because these workers don’t pocket $73 an hour, doesn’t mean General Motors isn’t paying that, something Salmon and others need to understand.

Government intervention – Going back to the Democrats’ “green” agenda, it is easy to see why the government itself has been a burden on the auto industry in America. While it is good that the government has pushed companies to be more eco-friendly, there is a difference between a “push” and a “shove”. During the last election in Canada, Liberal party candidate Stephan Dion had promised to create a “carbon tax” plan which would punish polluters like the struggling auto industry. While radical, this is the path many left-leaning politicians are on. Let’s not forget Obama’s coal industry comments, something that should have gotten the attention of the “Big Three” as well. If he is going to tax one “polluter” into bankruptcy, what makes them think he won’t target them as well?

As Mark Levin noted the other day, this isn’t a failure of the “free market”, it is a failure of government intervention. Through what can be only referred to as “government hostility”, the economy has become a dangerous place for big business. Corporate taxes have sent American jobs overseas, including those in the auto industry, and by increasing them, it only makes matters worse.I disagree with Ed Morrissey’s claim that management AND labour are to blame, especially since much of their troubles were brought on by higher taxes and a demented “green” agenda. While I discussed the fault of the labour unions above, I don’t honestly see how the CEOs of the “Big Three” could have steered their companies through the minefield that those in Congress have laid out for them. If the government is handing out bailouts like Halloween candy, why wouldn’t General Motors, Chrysler and Ford want to partake? The problem I see with this is that any money they are given will either be taken back through taxes or given to unions. If the government would lift restraints on them, allow them to do business without paying through the nose, then maybe they could survive without outside intervention.

Let’s capitalism breath, don’t strangle it with socialist economic policy brought about by left-leaning politicians. Let those in business do their job, and keep those in Washington out of their way…

*****

While I stood behind the previous bailout, I can’t stand behind this one. The difference, as described above, is that with the auto industry the way it is now, any bailout that involves simply giving the “Big Three” funds to stay afloat is a waste of money. The first bailout was designed to “grease the wheels”, to get Wall Street working again after it was halted by corruption on the part of Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac, as well as bad government policy, most notably Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act. The $700 billion in that instance WAS to get the financial sector moving again. Yes, they should reexamine the practices of some in the business community, as well as those in Washington, but in my opinion, there is nothing fatally flawed about the system itself. The auto industry, on the other hand, is crippled by numerous factors, some of which I mentioned above. Once again, many people think it has gotten so bad that only through bankruptcy can it be fixed. In this respect, without proper reform, it will cost tax payers far to much money to fix a “broken” system.

Gas prices needs to be watched, and to protect the economy as a whole, drilling must start now. It isn’t simply the auto industry, but all markets that needs this. Unions have become too powerful, and steps have to be taken to release their grip on America’s labour supply. Going back to the CNSNews article, when these “monopolies” start setting wages and not the automakers, trouble ensues. Yes unions are good for the workers, but in a highly competitive market, they have become a burden on business struggling to stay afloat. Finally, government needs to BACK OFF! Instead of providing a “guiding hand”, Washington has its hands around the throats of many businesses, not simply the “Big Three”. “Spreading the wealth” doesn’t work, capitalism does, they need to realize this before this recession turns into a depression.

Before more money is spent, everyone needs to sit down and actually examine the issue. What are the problems and what needs to be done to fix them. Instead of throwing money at it, why not actually try to work it out? That is why these people were elected if I remember correctly…

UPDATE:Michelle Malkin has another report on the Citigroup bailout up right now. I do stand behind her on most issues, but this one I am going to have to say no to. I agree with her on the principle, that you can’t simple throw money at the problem and hope that solves it, but I don’t see this as negatively as she and many of her colleagues and readers do. I will say that this is a “necessary evil”, that financial institutions like Citigroup and AIG were forced into their current situations by predatory lending and the sheer incompetence of those who were supposed to prevent this economic hardship, like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd… Through the Community Reinvestment Act and political pressure from groups like ACORN, banks were forced to make bad loans, bad loans were were forced through the banks, forced through the financial sector, and now that the markets are crippled, the tax payer is being forced to help pick up the pieces… Once again, a “necessary evil”…

UPDATE:After the heat comes down, the UAW responds with a commerical. They have had a hand in bringing about this problem, and now they want us to pity them? According to the Heritage Foundation, not only are these people bringing in much more money then their counterparts in the auto industry, but their health care plans are simply unrealistic to say the least. I am not afraid to say that maybe filing for bankruptcy protection might actually be the best thing for the “Big Three” to do, especially if it means they have a chance to “dig out” this “cancer” on the industry, but it still doesn’t sit well with me. Losing investors and damaging their once respected names seems an awful price to pay to undo the damage unionization has done…

I am reminded of an old Onion article every time I hear people talk about this issue. Just a few weeks ago I was writing about the city of Chicago working to set up a high school for gay students, and I was disgusted at how people were forfeiting common sense for political correctness. On the heels of this, we now see Governor Schwarzenegger of California speaking out against the passing of Proposition 8, justifying their lunacy by discussing how the vote should be overturned by the courts. I honestly don’t know how he can say that, how he can simply dismiss the will of his people to appease a group which has become unhinged. The line has been drawn in the sand, the people of California aren’t comfortable with the idea of gays and lesbians marrying, and while many disagree, the majority of the state voted in favour of the proposition. Why can’t that be respected?

Political correctness these days demands acceptance of even the most off-putting behaviour in society. While the Onion was joking about the inappropriate nature of the 2001 Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade, it is no joke what we are seeing now with each passing event. The parades in Ottawa and Toronto have gotten to the point inappropriate and paraders and spectators are dressed in overly revealing and highly sexualized attire. A friend of mine, a very open minded and understanding individual, had worked security for the Ottawa parade a few years back and admitted to me it was “disgusting” to see what he saw. I myself have had run-ins of this sort, invited to gay pride parties in the past by friends, and I felt the same way afterwards. It isn’t that you don’t fit in, it is dealing with their hyper sexuality. While heterosexual couples would be facing charges for lewd conduct, society overlooks the law to allow homosexuals the right to do whatever they feel like…

This is what we are seeing in California with their Prop 8 protests. Instead of exercising their rights responsibly, we see a “lynching mob” running around the state threatening those who they believe are trying to suppress their “right” to gay marriage. Just because you don’t like what someone else believes, it doesn’t mean you have the right viciously attack them in any way you want…

This disgusting advertisement boarders on libel. There is nothing in that piece of filth other than a rabid display of their hatred towards something they obviously don’t understand. Am I a fan of Mormonism? Not really. I don’t agree with much of their “alternate Christian” teachings, but I have never seen a Mormon terrorize people the way these anti-Prop 8 advocates are terrorizing them. The fringe of this group have begun mailing letters with “suspicious white powder” inside, finally crossing a legal line which the media cannot ignore. While CBS reported that the powder was non-toxic, that doesn’t mean that the next letter won’t be. We have seen these trial runs with Islamic terrorists, testing out safety procedures and reactions from police, and just because they aren’t fueled by religious hatred, doesn’t mean they can’t be as determined and dangerous. Matter of fact, with the popularity of the anti-Christian movement, fueled by radicals like Bill Maher and Kathy Griffin who have been applauded for their anti-religious dementia, these offenders may be emboldened to take more drastic action for their cause, especially if they will be celebrated as heroes by the far-left afterwards. It is all about twisting the facts to portray the distorted image they like to believe.

Contrary to what many would believe, this lunacy isn’t limited to “Tim” or other members of the anti-Prop 8 fringe, it is also found within the mainstream of the movement. Instead of admitting that they didn’t spend enough (or any) time addressing the concerns those against same-sex marriage in order to swing voters, they blame the failure of their “No on 8″ efforts on “voter intolerance”. Jarod Wunneburger, an executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Assembly, told Nicole Dailo of the Daily Trojan that “I think part of what caused it to pass is that the Yes on 8 campaign used some pretty dirty tricks… They used a lot of scare tactics”. What “scare tactics” are these? Well it appears that supporters of the proposition were telling voters that their church could be sued if it didn’t allow for gay marriage, something that DID happen in Canada following the passage of Bill C-38 by the Liberals. Matter of fact, Deborah Chymyshyn and Tracey Smith were awarded damages by The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal on the basis that the Knights of Columbus had “affronted the same-sex couple’s dignity, feelings and self-respect” by canceling the event after they found out these two women were renting the hall out for their lesbian wedding. Why weren’t the religious rights of the Knights of Columbus respected? While there was an op-out clause that was written into the gay marriage bill, the BC Tribunal (in my opinion) had a pro-gay marriage agenda, hoping that their ruling would allow for other gay and lesbian couples to usurp the rights of religious groups to get their way. The Knights of Columbus did refuse the wedding because it was “in a manner contrary to their core beliefs”, and still they lost the lawsuit. It happened in Canada, even with legal protection for religious organizations, so I doubt that it couldn’t happen in California…

I could go on discussing how this has gotten out of hand, but I think I have made my point. Instead of acting responsibly, pro-gay marriage activists have lost their minds. Roseanne Barr’s own bigotry last week should have been enough to prove this point, but it seems many still refuse to acknowledge what is going on. While we won’t see stories of this in the MSM, it is nice to see that blogger like Michelle Malkin are keeping us informed on this ongoing fiasco. As I have said previously, why aren’t people respecting the vote in California? The proposition passed the same margin which elected Barack Obama, and yet while they call that vote an “overwhelming majority”, they argue that this one should be ignored because it doesn’t have a large enough percentage of voters. Matter of fact, the majority of those who voted for Prop 8 supported Barack Obama, so why is that being ignored? To me it all reeks of far-left hypocrisy… The bigots accusing others of bigotry…

Does it really matter? If the Californian Supreme Court won’t overturn it, we will most likely see the United States Supreme Court do something about it when a judge that passes Barack Obama’s “litmus test” get appointed. Until this issue is resolved, I expect that this fiasco will continue and that we will see these activists stoop to news lows. Instead of acting responsibly by accepting the “will of the people”, the once respected gay community has been reduced to a mass of spoiled children throwing a tantrum… Pathetic if you ask me…

UPDATE: Almost the instant I published this article, Michelle Malkin posted one of her own about an incident in San Francisco’s Castro district. Christians were escorted about of the area by police in riot gear after crowds of anti-Prop 8 radicals assault them. Even with the police presence there, it didn’t seem to be enough to quell this anger mob who threatened the church group with violence if they ever returned. While you won’t see this on CNN anytime soon, it is nice to know Michelle and others are covering it. Just when you thought this fiasco couldn’t get uglier, it does…

UPDATE: Now Hot Air’s Allahpundit is reporting on the Castro district incident. Much like Michelle’s post, this one does have the video of the angry mob chasing the Christians with police in riot gear trying to keep the situation from getting out of hand. I agree Allahpundit when he said that we should watch how the MSM reports this story. I expect we will see them telling “both sides” to calm down, you know, like how “both sides” are to blame for the Freddie-Mac/Fannie-Mae fiasco… Pathetic…

UPDATE: While I do enjoy coming back to older blog posts to update them, but I honestlythought this Prop 8 derangement was over. How wrong I was… Michelle Malkin was reporting on the New York Times reaction to the new demented strategy of “calling in Gay” in protest. Jane Q. Republican broke the story, so I tip my hat to her, but while I am not surprised at the NYT being biased to the poit of delusional, I will say that I am just dumbfound at the lunacy of this. Isn’t anyone going to question the validity of doing this in the tough economic times we live in? I was watching an MSNBC report on this and many shop owners in the Castro District can’t afford to close for even a day. I am sure that they will be harassed and greatly criticized for not jumping off the cliff with these rest of these gay lemmings… Urgh… What if I decided to call in “straight”? I have a bad case of “yellow fever”, do you think I would get the same pat on the back that these demented protestors got?

Like this:

I made the mistake of turning on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart the other night. As usual, nothing he said made me laugh, just a collection of poorly written jokes slanted to the far-left. I haven’t had much use for Mr. Leibowitz since Stephan Colbert left his show, and I didn’t much appreciate his attack on John McCain a few years back, so it was simply morbid curiousity with what he would be saying now that Barack Obama is President-Elect that kept me from changing the channel. In an unsurprising move, this partisan hack decided to take a shot at Sarah Palin, trying to paint her as a whiner now that the election is over, and “correct” her claim that she wouldn’t make baseless accusations by showing clips of her discussing how Obama was “paling around with terrorists”, and that he doesn’t see America the same way we do. Of course Mr. Leibowitz wouldn’t bother researching those claims would he? Oh no, that would get in the way of his laughless jokes…

There seems to be a growing number of people who haven’t bothered to do any research on the Governor of Alaska, deciding to simply believe the worst they hear about her. Go to any far-left website like the Huffington Post, and you will find a group of rabid anti-Palin partisan hacks. Let’s forget that Keith Olbermann didn’t bother reading the transcript of the Charlie Gibson interview when he made his ignorant comments about how Palin “seeing Russia from her house” doesn’t count as foreign policy experience, especially when any idiot watching the “final product” could tell it was poorly doctored. Let’s also ignore that everyone discussing her “lack” of foreign policy experience has outright ignored the Alaskan Pipeline Project, something she put together by working with a variety of Canadian officials from the Yukon, Alberta and British Columbia, something I have been discussing for a while on my blog… Let’s simply address a few of these lingering issues…

Let’s start with Stewart’s ignorant remarks about Palin’s statements. For a man who claims to be an expert on politics, he sure missed the mark on this. Barack Obama DOES have a history of “paling around with terrorists”. I have heard CNN’s Rick Sanchez try to debate this by saying the only “terrorist” Obama knows is Bill Ayers, and that he is “actually” a “respected” member of the city of Chicago, ignoring that he has repented for his past crimes and that he often brags about them. For Sanchez and Leibowitz’s information, you can’t talk about one of these “terrorists” without bringing up the other, and in this case, it is Bernadine Dohrn. As Camille Paglia said the other day,

The mystery of Bernardine Dohrn: How could such a personable, attractive, well-educated young woman end up saying such things at a 1969 political rally as this (omitted in the film) about the Manson murders: “Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach. Wild!” And how could Dohrn have so ruthlessly pursued a decade-long crusade of hatred and terrorism against innocent American citizens and both private and public property?

This woman is just as twisted, hateful and dangerous as her husband, and why her name wasn’t raised during this “investigation” is beyond me. For those keeping count, that is two “terrorists” Barack Obama has “paled around with”. What about Progressives For Obama? If Ayers and Dohrn aren’t enough, why not bring in the rest of the Weathermen who aren’t dead or in jail? My count was at least five other members of the former terrorist group (ran their member list through a Google search), so that is now seven “terrorists” he is “paling around with” for those who still believe what Palin said wasn’t true. How about Rashid Khalidi for number eight? We don’t know who else was at the 2003 going away party Obama threw him, but I am sure there were a slew of antisemities in attendance, if not a few foreign and domestic “terrorists”. Even without taking into account Raila Odinga and other “skeletons”, there is enough of these relationships to back-up Palin’s statement, and seeing that these people helped “educate” the President-Elect, I also believe that Obama doesn’t see America the way others do.

Jon, you honestly have to do your research. I know you are busy writing laughless jokes with your useless staff of unfunny writers, but since you claim to be a political comedy show, it would be nice to at least have the “political” aspect nailed since you definitely lack anything resembling “comedy”.

If it isn’t Sarah’s comments about Obama’s associations, it is her supposed remarks about “Africa being a country” and “not knowing what NAFTA is”.The New York Times was reporting on the “Martin Eisenstadt” fiasco, something which should have caught the attention of all these rabid anti-Palin, especially when they quoted the non-existent source to back up their deranged beliefs. The truth is that this story started with Fox News’ Carl Cameron and a post-election appearance on The Factor with Bill O’Reilly. No one knows who Cameron’s source was, and while Allahpundit at Hot Air has said that it wasn’t the imaginary “Eisenstadt”, I do believe that whoever it is, they are just as credible as the nonexistent McCain adviser.

The problem is no one cared. You had CNN, MSNBC, CBS and any other partisan network jump on this story the instant it broke. Nicolas Graham at the Huffington Post didn’t even bother verifying his source when he post the original story, something to which deranged reader couldn’t help but comment with glee over. No one has bothered to issue apologizes for this mess, especially not Cameron himself who seems to have been sidelined since the Eisenstadt story broke. No matter what Fox News says, no matter how firmly they are standing behind the original story, I honestly believe that they are the ones who should take the blame for this fiasco. It is obvious that they are trying to save their credibility when this whole thing began to unraveled, but it isn’t working. Many bloggers, including myself, have begun to wonder whether or not O’Reilly and Cameron were trying to “turn over a new leaf” with this story since Obama became President-Elect, especially with the way CNN and MSNBC are fawning over Barack since his election win roughly two weeks ago.

All in all, I think all this says more about the quality (or lack of it) in journalism in America, then Palin’s intelligence. It does seem the glory days of reporting are now long gone…

*****

I could go on about all the incidents of the media mistreatment of Sarah Palin again, but I would recommend new readers to look at Double Standards of the main stream media, as well as other articles I have written on the subject. It would be nice to see reporters trying to stay fair and balanced now that the election is over, but I am not holding my breath. Until this love affair with Barack Obama ends, we won’t see reporter like Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams or Rick Sanchez giving up their rapid partisanship. All we can do is continue to research the issues, rely on credible sources of information for the real stories instead of those who have shown to have political agendas… No matter what cosmetic counter girls and other uninformed partisan hacks like Jon Stewart tell us…

UPDATE: The instant I think they will leave Palin alone, the MSM goes after her for be around while turkey’s are “executed”. They act as if they have never had a turkey sandwich or celebrated Thanksgiving before… Urgh, if Michelle Malkin wasn’t reporting it, I would have a hard time believe that this lunacy was true… Sinking to new lows all the time…

I usually prefer using my own words when dealing with an issue, but many have dismissed my writings for a variety of reasons. Some readers believe me to be a far-right blogger, others believe that I am deluded for not believing in the “power of The One”, grouping me in with well-meaning yet ignorant McCain supporters, refusing to even notice the hours of research which went in to carving out my opinions on the various issues during this election cycle. If they won’t listen to me, maybe they will listen to one of their own.

Camille Paglia is a famous artist and outspoken feminist. While she was an avid support of Barack Obama, I do believe that much of her “affection” for him has died down. I would think that this has to do with her researching his past connections, starting with Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. While she doesn’t come out and say it in the article she published today, read between the lines, see how she distances herself from other Obama supporters.

I don’t agree with Paglia that Obama will last eight years, I take a stance similar to that of James Pethokoukis, that he will be a one-term President, but I don’t think it will only be the economic crisis that will cause his downfall, leaning more to the fact that now people are starting to look into Barack’s background and aren’t liking what they see. With that said, there are many things in this article I could debate, but I won’t, I want to share it with my readers. The point I am trying to make is that, although we are very different in our upbringings, political or otherwise, and while we may hold very different views on a number of topics, I do believe it is important to sit down and listen to what others are saying, especially when you can see eye to eye on one topic… In this case it is Palin Derangement Syndrome…

*****

Obama surfs through
The Obamas are a warm vision for the White House — but he should strive toward full transparency. Plus: Yes, I still like Sarah Palin!

By Camille Paglia

Nov. 12, 2008

Dazed and confused. A week after the election of Barack Obama, millions of American news junkies are in serious cold turkey, the big bump of withdrawal from two years of addiction to the dizzying ups and downs of a campaign that threatened never to end.

Eat dirt, you sour Clintons, who said Obama was “unelectable.” Obama’s 8 million vote margin over his Republican opponent — miraculously sparing us endless litigation and chad counting — was an exhilarating testimony to his personal gifts and power of persuasion. And the formidable Michelle Obama, with her electric combo of brains and style, is already rewriting first ladyhood. The warm partnership of the Obamas (wonderfully caught by the camera as they disappeared offstage after his victory) has set an inspiring standard for modern marriage.

Yes, it’s true we know relatively little about Barack Obama, and his triumph is a roll of the dice. But John McCain (like Bob Dole) was a major Republican misfire — a candidate of personal honor and heroic sacrifice who was woefully inadequate for the times. McCain’s lurching grandstanding during the Wall Street crisis made him look like a ham actor on a bender. In debate, McCain was always pugnacious but too often bland or rambling, and he often missed glaring opportunities to score off Obama’s vagueness or contradictions.

McCain’s brusque treatment of his long-suffering wife, Cindy, was also off-putting — nowhere more so than after his concession speech, when he barely remembered to give her a perfunctory hug. Probably no one is more relieved by McCain’s defeat than Cindy, who seemed too frail and tightly wound for the demanding role of first lady. Now she can slip away once more into blessed privacy.

No one knows whether Obama will move to the center or veer hard left. Perhaps even he doesn’t know. But I have great optimism about his political instincts and deftness. He wants to be president of all the people — if that is possible in so divided a nation. His natural impulse seems to be toward reconciliation and concord. The big question will be how patient the Democratic left wing is in demanding drastic changes in social policy, particularly dicey with a teetering economy.

As I’ve watched Obama gracefully step up to podiums or move through crowds, I’ve been reminded not of basketball, with its feints and pivots, but of surfing, that art form of his native Hawaii. A photograph of Obama body surfing on vacation was widely publicized in August. But I’m talking about big-time competitive surfing, as in this stunning video tribute to the death-defying Laird Hamilton (who, like Obama, was raised fatherless in Hawaii). Obama’s ability to stay on his feet and outrun the most menacing waves that threaten to engulf him seems to embody the breezy, sunny spirit of the American surfer.

In the closing weeks of the election, however, I became increasingly disturbed by the mainstream media’s avoidance of forthright dealing with several controversies that had been dogging Obama — even as every flimsy rumor about Sarah Palin was being trumpeted as if it were engraved in stone on Mount Sinai. For example, I had thought for many months that the flap over Obama’s birth certificate was a tempest in a teapot. But simple questions about the certificate were never resolved to my satisfaction. Thanks to their own blathering, fanatical overkill, of course, the right-wing challenges to the birth certificate never gained traction.

But Obama could have ended the entire matter months ago by publicly requesting Hawaii to issue a fresh, long-form, stamped certificate and inviting a few high-profile reporters in to examine the document and photograph it. (The campaign did make the “short-form” certificate available to Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.) And why has Obama not made his university records or thesis work widely available? The passivity of the press toward Bush administration propaganda about weapons of mass destruction led the nation into the costly blunder of the Iraq war. We don’t need another presidency that finds it all too easy to rely on evasion or stonewalling. I deeply admire Obama, but as a voter I don’t like feeling gamed or played.

Another issue that I initially dismissed was the flap over William Ayers, the Chicago-based former member of the violent Weather Underground. Conservative radio host Sean Hannity began the drumbeat about Ayers’ association with Obama a year ago — a theme that most of the mainstream media refused to investigate or even report until this summer. I had never heard of Ayers and couldn’t have cared less. I was irritated by Hillary Clinton’s aggressive flagging of Ayers in a debate, and I accepted Obama’s curt dismissal of the issue.

Hence my concern about Ayers has been very slow in developing. The mainstream media should have fully explored the subject early this year and not allowed it to simmer and boil until it flared up ferociously in the last month of the campaign. Obama may not in recent years have been “pallin’ around” with Ayers, in Sarah Palin’s memorable line, but his past connections with Ayers do seem to have been more frequent and substantive than he has claimed. Blame for the failure of this issue to take hold must also accrue to the conservative talk shows, which use the scare term “radical” with simplistic sensationalism, blanketing everyone under the sun from scraggly ex-hippies to lipstick-chic Nancy Pelosi.

Pursuing the truth about Ayers, I recently rented the 2002 documentary “The Weather Underground,” from Netflix. It was riveting. Although the film seems to waver between ominous exposé and blatant whitewash, the full extent of the group’s bombing campaign is dramatically demonstrated. It’s not for everyone: The film uses gratuitous cutaways of horrifying carnage, from the Vietnam War to the Manson murders (such as Sharon Tate’s smiling corpse, bathed in blood). But the news footage of the Greenwich Village townhouse destroyed in 1970 by bomb-making gone wrong in the basement still has enormous impact. Standing in the chaotic street, actor Dustin Hoffman, who lived next door, seems like Everyman at the apocalypse.

Ayers comes off in the film as a vapid, slightly dopey, chronic juvenile with stunted powers of ethical reasoning. The real revelation is his wife, Bernardine Dohrn (who evidently worked at the same large Chicago law firm as Michelle Obama in the mid-1990s). Of course I had heard of Dohrn — hers was one of the most notorious names of our baby-boom generation — and I knew her black-and-white police mug shot. But I had never seen footage of her speaking or interacting with others. Well, it’s pretty obvious who wears the pants in that family!

The mystery of Bernardine Dohrn: How could such a personable, attractive, well-educated young woman end up saying such things at a 1969 political rally as this (omitted in the film) about the Manson murders: “Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach. Wild!” And how could Dohrn have so ruthlessly pursued a decade-long crusade of hatred and terrorism against innocent American citizens and both private and public property?

“The Weather Underground” never searches for answers, but it does show Dohrn, then and now, as a poised, articulate woman of extremely high intelligence and surprising inwardness. The audio extra of her reading the collective’s first public communiqué (“Revolutionary violence is the only way”) is chilling. But the tumultuous footage of her 1980 surrender to federal authorities is a knockout. Mesmerized, I ran the clip six or seven times of her seated at a lawyer’s table while reading her still defiant statement. The sober scene — with Dohrn hyper-alert in a handsome turtleneck and tweedy jacket — was tailor-made for Jane Fonda in her “Klute” period, androgynous shag. Only illegalities by federal investigators prevented Dohrn from being put away on ice for a long, long time.

Given that Obama had served on a Chicago board with Ayers and approved funding of a leftist educational project sponsored by Ayers, one might think that the unrepentant Ayers-Dohrn couple might be of some interest to the national media. But no, reporters have been too busy playing mini-badminton with every random spitball about Sarah Palin, who has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamation merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.

How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the State University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don’t know their asses from their elbows.

Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology — contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.

I like Sarah Palin, and I’ve heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is — and quite frankly, I think the people who don’t see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn’t speak the King’s English — big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns — that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.

As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee — what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry’s nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama’s pick and who was on everyone’s short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin’s. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.

The U.S. Senate as a career option? What a claustrophobic, nitpicking comedown for an energetic Alaskan — nothing but droning committees and incestuous back-scratching. No, Sarah Palin should stick to her governorship and just hit the rubber-chicken circuit, as Richard Nixon did in his long haul back from political limbo following his California gubernatorial defeat in 1962. Step by step, the mainstream media will come around, wipe its own mud out of its eyes, and see Palin for the populist phenomenon that she is.

On the culture front, I was startled to read of the death last week of Yma Sumac, the virtuoso five-octave Peruvian singer who seems like a legendary figure of the misty past. Sumac’s 1950 debut album, “Voice of the Xtabay,” made a tremendous impact on me as a child. My family attended her performance (with her company of 20 artists) at the Binghamton Theatre in what was probably 1951. I still have the yellowed clippings and program, which lists songs eerily mimicking the sound of the Andean winds and earthquakes. The cover image of “Voice of the Xtabay” with a glamorous Sumac in the pose of a prophesying priestess against a background of fierce sculptures and an erupting volcano, contains the entire pagan worldview and nature cult of what would become my first book, “Sexual Personae,” published 40 years later. Thank you, Yma!

News items: My article “Final Cut: The Selection Process for ‘Break, Blow, Burn'” has just been published in the Fall 2008 issue of Arion at Boston University. It is available online at Arion or via that invaluable international site, Arts & Letters Daily. No more Mr. Nice Guy: I’ve taken the gloves off against John Ashbery, Jorie Graham and the rest of that insufferably pretentious crowd. For real English used in a vital, vigorous contemporary way, see the new book of poems by my colleague Jack DeWitt, “Almost Grown,” which deals with cars, gals and brawls — American culture at its finest!

My keynote lecture for the Theodore Roethke Centenary Conference, held at the University of Michigan last month, has gone to press for the forthcoming issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review. The lecture is called “Dance of the Senses: Natural Vision and Psychotic Mysticism in Theodore Roethke.” One of my main points: I’m sick of the insipid bourgeois neuroticism in current, careerist American poetry. Bring back the psychotics!

In Canada today we are observing Remembrance Day, the day where we honour those who fought and those who died for our country. It is nice to see Michelle Malkin and others putting up posts today, so I thought I would do the same. This day has a special meaning for my family, it is another day we spend remembering Alfred Joseph Foster, my grandfather. Joe was one of the lucky ones, he came home after World War II when many other didn’t. At the age of 17, he lied to recruiters and joined the military, serving on Corvettes escorting shipping across the Atlantic. After the war, he spent years as a volunteer fireman, he even started his own hotel cleaning business… He died a few years ago following a massive stroke, but he lived a long life when other he knew didn’t…

Remembering my grandfather also reminds me about the sacrifice he and others made when they were called upon to serve their country. Today is a day to remember what so many gave up so that we could live a free and safe life. The issue I am having is that so many have hijacked Remembrance Day to fulfill their own goals. Year by year it gets worse, the message of “Never Forget” has morphed into “Never Again”, and that is the problem…

Knowing how history has played out, war is constant. There has always been and always will be those who seek to oppress others, tyrants who will find power one way or another, especially in less developed regions of the world. Whether it is driven by ethnic, religious, monetary or a vast number of other differences, though the reasons are different, the outcome is always the same. Just take a look at the last century and see how even after the Great War, the “war to end all wars”, didn’t change much. The Treaty of Versailles, for example, fueled hatred within Germany which lead them to elect Adolf Hitler in 1932. The partitioning which created the state of Israel shortly after the Second World War has lead to a countless number of minor and major conflicts over the years, spurred on by religious tensions which date back centuries.

No matter what happens or what is said, there will always be war. The problem I am seeing is that every Veterans Day and Remembrance Day we see anti-war groups using the memory of fallen soldiers towards their own perverted ends. In high school, I was shocked and disgusted at how far these people would go to indoctrinate young and naive students, telling them it was the fault of military build up that lead to World War II, that power hungry governments wouldn’t sit down and talk with tyrant leaders to prevent bloodshed. In my last year of high school, I sat in the cafeteria watching a twisted display of this, a student prepared service which deeply offended myself, my friends and rational teachers. Watching my English teacher shake his head and exit the assembly in disgust was all I needed to see, a confirmation of what I had witnessed had crossed a line. I personally blame The War Amps and Operation Legacy for this. Instead of celebrating the freedom which so many fought and died for, they preach this irrational message of NEVER AGAIN!, trying to scare future generations into adopting their strict anti-war stance. Do I respect their service? Definitely, but these efforts can’t be simply ignored because of their sacrifices…

Could the First World War have been prevented with words? Anyone who studied it knows that the end result was very much inevitable. The Franco-Prussian War and continuing French hatred towards Germany, Britain’s fear of Germany’s growing power, tension between Tsar Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov and the peasants of his country, etc all of which boiled over when Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia were killed by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand. Even the family ties of European royals couldn’t prevent this, so how could discussions between them do any better?

Could the Second World War have been prevented with words? Actually this was tried before Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. Former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler to try to negotiate a cease of hostilities. He, along with others tried to prevent war through negotiations, but all it managed to do was encourage Nazi aggression. On the other hand, if military action was taken sooner, as many historians have pointed out, Hitler’s march across Europe might have been halted before he took France, which helped him fortify his position in Europe.

Anyone who has studied history knows that aggression can only be defeated by a greater aggression. The Khmer Rouge’s reign of tyranny ended when the Vietnamese retaliated to Pol Pot’s ill-advised invasion with their own invasion into Cambodia which forced the brutal regime from power. Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau enacted the War Measures Act during the October Crisis, stomping out the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) in one display of military power and “martial law”, ending their terrorist campaign permanently. Ronald Reagan’s aggressive stance during the Cold War brought Mikhail Gorbachev to power, and with his help, ended the reign of the Soviet Union. There are many more example throughout history of this truth, something so many are willing to ignore.

Let’s take today to remember those who did understand this lesson, those who sacrificed so much to defeat tyranny which threatened their country and countries around the world. This isn’t about “never again”, it is about understanding that war is evil, but a necessary evil. War is used to preserve peace, a peace so many of us seem to take for granted. Military power is important for that reason. It isn’t always about defeating an enemy, it is also about showing them that you are not just willing, but capable of stopping them if they cross the line.

Never forget those who fought for our freedom, and always remember why they did it. That is what Remembrance Day is all about… You dishonour the memories of those who sacrificed for us to think otherwise…

I had discussed my fears of an Obama presidency before, but I believe many are still not listening. Previous posts about the dangerous of “spreading the wealth” had fallen upon deaf ears, a few readers even questioned my economic credentials. I had preached about the dangers of letting capitalism run wild, telling readers that trusting the “invisible hand” and not the “hand of government” wouldn’t be enough to correct any situation is disastrous. Without proper guidance, most, if not all markets tend to go towards monopolies or oligopolies, as we have seen with Microsoft and OPEC. The “invisible hand” works best when guided by a cautious government, one looking at maintaining competition in the economy. It is competition that creates efficiency, prices remain low, business expand, jobs are created and workers are paid better. It is important that those on the “right” remember this, especially when discussing fiscal policy. Hands off isn’t always the best approach…

On the other hand, relying on government interventions to fix every economic situation is also foolish, something we have been hearing more about during the final days of the last election. Dismissing the free market principles of the right-leaning economist, and ignoring the concerns of those who preach for cautiousness, politicians are telling us that it is important to restrain capitalism because it is a “great evil”, that it was capitalistic “greed” that has brought America to the brink of another Great Depression. We hear talk of nationalization, on giving government more control of the markets, ignoring the failures of projects like Petro Canada and Air Canada which cost Canadian tax payers billions of dollars. It isn’t simply nationalization though…

During one of my runs around the blogosphere, I bumped into a troubled poster. He was worried about something he was reading on Change.gov, a website dedicated to Obama’s continuing obsession with his own importance. After scrolling past a slew his and Joe Biden’s ill-informed positions on a variety of issues, including nationalized health care, ending the Iraq War and renewing American global leadership, this poster came across ‘America Serves’…

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

After reading this, the first things that came to mind were Joseph Stalin’s “Five Year Plans” and Mao Zedong’s “Great Leaps Forward”. I guess we should have known this was coming when he started talking about “services” and “sacrifice” for the country. These were the ideas that were thought up by communist leaders who gave speeches about working towards the “greater good”, serving a “high cause”, and bringing about “change”…

The concept itself is as old as the Great Pyramids; If work needs to be done, simply recruit labour for the job. Instead of slavery, we have a “charismatic leader” demanding citizens prove their loyalty through service to their country. Ask yourself, with the financial trouble America is facing right now, including the ever growing government debt, how did you think Obama can achieve his goals?

To fix education? Well his new Classroom Corps will recruit students to serve as teaching assistants. After being given basic training, these workers will perform a variety of tasks like fetching photocopies, grading assignments, and cleaning classrooms… All for the “greater good” of course…

To fix health care? Well if he wants to create a national system, he will need a large labour force on top of nearly a trillion dollars on tax payer money. The Health Care Corps and Veterans Corps will recruit students to serve as assistants to doctors and nurses, as well as perform the jobs of orderlies and janitors and various hospitals and veteran care facilities. Remember that it is for the “greater good” when you start to feel used…

For every issue that comes up, you will find another “Corps” to deal with it. This is how the Soviet Union survived as long as it did, this is how Communist China developed without American investment, on the backs of “patriotic” citizens sacrificing their time, as well as their own personal ambitions, for future generations. The problems with these plans are that they ultimately fail due to the fact that no matter how strong the message, without actual incentives for those working, the system comes to a halt. We saw this with the Poznan 1956 Protests when Polish workers protested against higher taxes, low wages and harsh working conditions. Let’s not forget that the other reason the “Great Leaps Forward” and other such plans failed, because even with an abundance of unskilled labour, there was only so much that could be achieved without proper training and equipment. This is something someone with an economic education would have known…

This is more than “creepy”, I believe that it another warning sign of what is to come under an Obama presidency. This radical leftward shift proposed by the President-Elect is shocking to say the least. As socialist governments move towards a system commonly referred to as “Red Capitialism”, we see that the Democrats are looking to go back and repeat their mistakes. Bigger government creates problems which costs the tax payer even more money, removing incentives disenfranchises workers who soon realize the “patriotism” won’t pay their bills, and no matter what the teaching of Karl Marx say, human greed can never be taken out of the equation, no matter how charismatic the leader is. One has to wonder whether or not Barack Obama truly is a socialist when he proposes failed economic plans like these…

Other than ‘America Serves’ and ‘The Obama National Service Plan’, Change.gov’s purpose, as Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey pointed out, seems to be to collect e-mail addresses and other personal information for future fund-raising and political organizing projects. It seems that even as President-Elect, his own greed hasn’t subsided. As he has done before, Obama will give this information to groups like ACORN to further his agenda at the community level. With this, expect to see more affordable housing projects like Grove Parc Plaza, along with other programs to “spread the wealth around”, especially now with Democrats controlling the House and Senate.

No matter how ill-conceived, Obama finally does have the power to push for “his” America. Knowing what we know now, do you really think we aren’t moving closer to socialism?

UPDATE:Allahpundit at Hot Air picked up this story from Little Green Footballs, but they took it to mean something else. In my post, I ignored the implication that this would be like a reinstatement of the draft by compelling service in the AmeriCorps, sticking more to the fact that ‘America Serves’ was saying that it would create new “Corps” to handle certain jobs in fields where Barack Obama wanted to increase government control. I do though agree with Allahpundit that when this issue comes up, it would be enjoyable to watch how each side reacts. It does look like the “shoe is on the other foot” now doesn’t it?

UPDATE: Give me a break. He hasn’t done anything, especially not as President, and yet people want to give him a national holiday? Talk about megalomania, I bet it was Barack Obama himself who was pushing for it. Michelle Malkin has more on it at her website…